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Google Launches $999 Meeting-Room-In-A-Box In Shot At Business Videoconferencing

GoogleGoogle today introduced what’s essentially a meeting room in a box, a $999 system that provides high-definition teleconferencing for up to 15 people at a time.

Chromebox for meetings will take on business videoconferencing systems costing $10,000 up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Caesar Sengupta, a Google vice president of product management. The goal, he says, is to provide the next best thing to face-to-face meetings to companies that could never afford pricier systems from the likes of Polycom and Cisco SystemsCisco Systems that are used by large companies.

“We’re trying to improve collaboration by making face-to-face communications much more affordable,” Sengupta said in an interview after a press event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

The system, which includes a Chromebox computer with an IntelIntel Core i7 processor, a camera, a speaker-microphone combo, a remote, and software to run the system, is available in the U.S. starting today from Asus, with systems from HP and DellDell and sales in other countries–Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K.–coming in the next few months. Companies need to provide their own screen, broadband connections, and of course a room.

After the first year, the ongoing support will cost $250 a year per room for the cloud-based service. Users need to have a Gmail or Google+ account to sign in and use the system. The system uses Google Calendar to show scheduled meetings on the screen, though a business needn’t be a user of Google Apps to use the system.

Sengupta repeatedly emphasized the ease of use of the system, which uses the Google Hangouts consumer videoconferencing service on the back end. Users need only sign into a meeting by a simple name, rather than dial in using long access codes. Remote users who aren’t in an outfitted room can join using Hangouts.

The product grew out of Google’s own frustrations in setting up and conducting meetings at its farflung offices around the world. “Most of our meeting rooms have videoconferencing systems in them now,” Senguta said. “It’s had a transforming impact on our culture. People can meet face to face. It’s improved the openness of the culture. So now, it’s kind of strange to just call someone up.”

Chromebox for meetings hardware

The core of the system’s hardware is a small, sandwich-sized Chromebox computer, less powerful versions of which were launched just days ago by several manufacturers such as Asus and Samsung.

Rooms outfitted with Chromebox for meetings can connect to others using traditional video conferencing systems with a new tool from Vidyo. Participants available only from phones can join meetings with a conference call number from UberConference.

Several companies have been trying out the system for the last few months, including Costco, Eventbrite, Gilt, YelpYelp, and Premier Foods.

Google’s enterprise business has been mostly a footnote to its massive advertising business. Some observers even think it’s mostly aimed at undercutting Microsoft’s business model. But with this and other products, it’s clear that Google will continue to offer more business-class products when it sees an opportunity.

Chromebox for meetings screen

Oh, and just for fun, if you’ve forgotten just how bad audio conferences can be, check out this parody that went viral on YouTube recently:

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This is great for attending a meeting socially and casually, but a key application layer is missing in Hangouts and that is the automation of “Business Processes”, such as scheduling, privacy, easy live collaboration, less G+ dependency, etc. and all that is what http://business-hangouts.com is bringing to the Enterprise.

hi , please provide me with a contact in South Africa to run a pilot or contact person who can initiate this technology , which will proove lucrative business in South Africa.Google Video Conference in a box

It’s more the software that (at least as Google promises) is much easier to use. As Sengupta told me, Google is still mainly a software company, so the success or failure of this product will rest on how good that is (offered as a service, of course, like most Google software).

One more Gretzky quote. Google is skating to where the puck will be. In doing so it is demolishing old routing and software ‘monopolies’ that seek lock in not ease speed and efficiency. Sad to say, any set of big screens can be dongled together. The hard part is doing it in a way that lets enterprises write off the cost of doing business the hard way.

Although it worked in the past, blowing a bubble screen netted the whale food, the sardines, billions of them are no longer confined by proprietary hot air. By allowing enterprises a way to communicate outside the limits of the past while evolving and depreciating equipment, Google will force lower margins and more open communications on big business.

Or using the arthritis analogy, a little Aleve (Chromebox) goes a long goes a long way toward reliving the pain points in video conferencing.